The Altamaha Echoes

LAHS MEETING, APRIL 15, 1999, 7:00 P.M.–HAYNES AUDITORIUM

HOSPITALITY:

DUTCH TREAT SUPPER, 5:45 P.M. AT ARCHIE’S

The election of Officers for 1999-00 and three Board of Directors for 1999-01 will be held at the LAHS Meeting on April 15. In addition to the slate of Officers and Board of Directors submitted by the 1999 Nominating Committee, nominations for these positions will be accepted from the floor. Nominations will be accepted for any LAHS member in good standing that has given their consent for this nomination.

The 1999 Nominating Committee, Berkley Minor, Chairman, Honey Fanning, ye Traer, Dyson Flanders, submit the following slate of persons for LAHS consideration:

OFFICERS 1999-2000 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 1999-2001 President- Buddy Sullivan Dyson Flanders

Vice-President Ed Meyers Constance Johnson

Secretary Ann Baggett Don McClain

Treasurer Honey Fanning

For several years, LAHS member Everett Moriarty has honored, remembered and recognized the Confederate Veterans of McIntosh County. Each year on April 26, Confederate Memorial Day, a basket of flowers is placed on the Confederate Monument at the McIntosh County Courthouse, and over 120 Confederate Flags are placed on the graves of McIntosh County Confederate Veterans. The cemeteries where you may observe these flags are: St. Andrews, Ebenezer, Upper Mill, Holland, Plum Orchard, Young Island, McIntosh Family, Baillie Plantation, Reynolds Chapel, Robson Family.

SAPELO ISLAND

National Estuarine Research Reserve

Sapelo Island enables visitors to see virtually every facet of a barrier islands’s natural community, from the diversified wildlife of the forested uplands, to the vast expanses of salt marsh and the complex beach and dunes systems. The Visitor Center, located near the mainland ferry dock brings to life both the natural and cultural history of Sapelo, while guided tours of the island enable visitors to experience the African-American community of Hog Hammock , the University of Georgia Marine Institute , the Reynolds Mansion and Sapelo Island’s 1820 Lighthouse.

SAPELO ISLAND VISITORS CENTER 912 437 3224 in Meridian is open daily except Mondays. This interpretive center for Sapelo has much to offer .Reservations for the four hour regular tours of the Island on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and the six hour extended tour on the last Tuesday of each month are made here. Sapelo Island Visitors Center also has the information on special group tours and School Field Trips and privately owned and operated opportunities and activities at Sapelo Island. A Gift Shop which includes Books, Art Objects, Pictures and Posters and wearing apparel is available at the Visitors Center.

SAPELO ISLAND NATIONAL

ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE

P.O. Box 15, Sapelo Island, Ga. 31327

Phone 912 485 2251, FAX: 485 2141

The SINERR is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, and is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

FORT KING GEORGE STATE HISTORICAL SITE

P.O. Box 711–Darien, Ga.31305-------912-437 4770

Special Events for March and April

March 20 Struggle for the Georgia Coast 10am-5pm

Throughout the early 1700's the area in which Fort King George stood was known as the "Disputed Territory" All three of Europe’s mightiest powers, England, France, and  ???

The Altamaha Echoes

The Parish House , St.Andrew’s Episcopal Church , Darien, Ga. will be the meeting place for LAHS October and November meetings. The Parish House is located at the corner of Rittenhouse & Green Streets, across from McIntosh Academy. This location is between Fort King George Drive and Highway Ga99. Drive from the Welcome Center on Fort King George Drive to St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church. Turn left on Rittenhouse Street.

Decorated for Christmas, the Belvedere Island Plantation Club House will be the setting for the 1999 LAHS Holiday Celebration. The entree, table set up and drink will be provided. LAHS members and their guests are asked to make reservations and bring a Covered Dish. A sign up sheet for reservations and Covered Dishes will be available at the October and November meetings.

Erected by The Georgia Historical Society and the

Pilot Club of Brunswick, Inc.

Erected by The Georgia Historical Society and the

Lower Altamaha Historical Society

In the years of Reconstruction immediately following the Civil War, Darien became a prominent sawmilling center and shipping port for yellow pine timber and lumber harvested in southeast Georgia. What was remarkable about Darien’s sudden burst of prosperity so rapidly was the fact that the town had been burned by the Union forces in 1863, and little remained of the commercial district but ashes when the war ended two years later. However, beginning in late 1865, sawmills began to be rebuilt on the waterfront areas in and around Darien, and on several of the marsh islands east of the town, convenient to deepwater ship anchorages.

Timbermen in the Georgia upcountry in areas with close proximity to the Altamaha River system cut pines and rafted then in log rafts down river to the sawmills at Darien, the only seaport at the mouth of the river with convenient access to the Atlantic Ocean and the intracoastal waterway. The primary areas of timber cutting were along the Ocmulgee, Oconee, Ohoopee and Altamaha rivers in the Georgia counties of Montgomery, Laurens, Pulaski, Dodge, Telfair, Appling, Wayne, Tattnall, Liberty and McIntosh. Timber rafts were floated down river to Darien where the timber was measured and graded, then sold to local sawmills at Darien, Doboy and St. Simons Island. Sailing vessels, later steamships, came to the Darien vicinity from all over the world, including the northeastern U.S., Mediterranean Sea, British Isles, Scandinavia and South America, to load and ship Georgia timber processed at Darien. The peak of this activity was reached in 1900 when Darien exported 112.5 million linear board feet of yellow pine timber. At this time, Darien was the leading pitch pine timber port on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard and second in the world only to Pensacola, Florida.

As the sources of timber were overcut and moved further away from the Altamaha River system, alternative methods of shipping timber to Darien were sought. This led to the creation of the Darien Shortline Railroad Company in 1889, a consortium of Darien timber brokers and sawmill owners. The railroad was established primarily to facilitate the shipment of pine timber from the Georgia interior (at greater distances from the river systems) to the sawmills at Darien. The Darien Shortline was soon supplanted by another company, the Darien & Western Railroad Company, even before work began on construction of the new line. The railroad, as originally conceived, was to run from Collins in Tattnall County, through Liberty County and into McIntosh County, with a terminus at Darien. Work began in 1890 in Tattnall County and proceeded toward Darien about eighty miles away. In 1895 the Darien & Western reached Darien. A passenger depot and turning facility was constructed in Darien at Columbus Square. Trains began running daily in each direction and, for the first time in its history, the town of Darien had rail service to the interior of Georgia, with connections north to Savannah and south to Jacksonville on the Seaboard Air Line Railway, which had a depot at Darien Junction (later Warsaw). Darien Junction was the point at which the Darien & Western and the Seaboard met, being located about fifteen miles northwest of Darien.

The railroad’s arrival in Darien enabled increased shipments of pine timber to be brought in to the local sawmills. In the long run, however, the railroad was unable to save what, by 1905, was a dying timber industry in that area. Columbus Square, meanwhile, became the transportation focal point for the town of Darien which, according to the 1900 census, had a population of about 2,000 persons.

In 1906, the Darien & Western was acquired by the Georgia Coast & Piedmont Railroad Company. The G.C.&P. Retained its Columbus Square depot in Darien and increased the level of passenger and freight service along the line from Darien to Collins, via Eulonia, Darien Junction, Ludowici and Reidsville. In 1910, bonds were sold to fund the extension of the Georgia Coast & Piedmont 18 miles south to a new terminus at Brunswick, to take advantage of the deep-water port facility at that place, as well as what, by then, had become the world’s second-leading exporting center (to Savannah) for naval stores products such as turpentine, rosin, roofing shingles and railroad cross ties. The construction of steel bridges and trestlework over the marshes and tidal streams of the Altamaha River delta between Darien and Brunswick was carried out in 1912 and 1913. In the spring of 1914 the Darien-Brunswick rail connection was completed, giving the G.C.&P. A total track system of ninety -nine miles from Collins to the Brunswick River.

In the summer of 1914, the Darien train depot was moved from Columbus Square to the Darien River waterfront on the precise spot where the Darien News building now stands adjacent to the present U.S. Highway 17 concrete bridge. A passenger and automobile transfer service between Darien and Brunswick was begun and for the next five years, local citizens had their first convenient and efficient transportation access to Brunswick, more rapid that the previous method of steamboat travel.

The G.C.&P. Went into receivership in 1919 and rail service to Darien was terminated, never to be revived. Several years later (1925-27) U.S. 17 was built between Darien and Brunswick, part of the new highway traversing the former track bed of the G.C.&P. Railroad over Generals, Butler and Champney islands south of Darien.